Uncommon Corn

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Flour corns have starchy endosperms (the central, fleshy part of each kernel), so they are the best type of corn for grinding into fine cornmeal, often called corn flour. Most can be eaten fresh — roasted or boiled on the cob, but only for a day or two because sugars quickly convert to starch as the kernels mature. Some flour corns are good for parching, too. Regional adaptations vary with variety; Southwestern ancestral strains are the most common.

Flint corns, sometimes called hard corns, have a lot of "flinty" endosperm and only a little "flour" endosperm. Flints are the most flavorful corn for grinding into grits or polenta.

Dent corns have a central flour endosperm surrounded by a flinty endosperm that shrink at different rates as kernels dry, causing a dent to form in the top of each kernel. Almost all hybrid field corns are dents, as are the most productive OP varieties. Dents make good animal feed and also can be ground into flour, grits and masa, and added to other foods such as soups.

Carl Barnes says if you're just beginning to experiment with grain corn, start with a small plot of a single variety. Also, keep in mind that grain-corn pollen can cause sweet corn to go starchy, so it's important to separate the two by at least 100 feet. And, because grain corn is wind-pollinated, it should be planted in blocks rather than single rows to get well-filled ears.

Barnes boosts the fertility of his soil with compost or worm castings. You can plant corn after a nitrogen-fixing cover crop such as alfalfa, or spread a mulch of nitrogen-rich grass clippings. Goldstein adds a word of caution: Be sure to wait until the soil is warm before planting untreated corn. A cold, wet seedbed can decrease seedling survival and encourage root rot.

The ideal spacing between plants varies with variety. A Northern flint, which grows less than 8 feet tall, should do well with plants grown 8 inches apart; varieties more than 8 feet tall need 18 to 24 inches between plants. With the tall corns, lodging is a big concern but open spacing still is needed to provide enough light so the plants grow stiff and strong.

As the corn grows, use a rototiller or hoe to control weeds while hilling up soil around the base of the plants. Never remove the side branches, called tillers. Some varieties actually produce ears on the tillers, and tillers are often an important pollen source.

Hybrid corn usually sheds pollen all at once, but OP varieties that form tillers have a longer pollination period involving both the primary tassel and tassels growing from tiller tips.

If strong winds knock your corn over when the ears are ripening, don't worry. "Give it a few days and it will stand back up," Barnes says. If three days pass and the corn is still lying low, he suggests tamping soil around the base of the plant with the heel of your shoe to provide extra support.

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